1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gas cooker control systems, and more particularly to a gas cooker control system with an efficient ignition controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, normal gas cookers use mechanical devices to open the gas valve and control the igniter. However, the igniter usually needs an additional battery to provide power supply to the discharging terminal, which could be a waste of resources and pollution of the environment. Moreover, the mechanical control of the gas valve is too complicated in operation.
Thus, circuits are designed to control the use of ignition of gas cooker. Patent ZL91209131.2 issued on Jan. 22, 1992 with issue No. CN2093978U discloses a gas cooker igniter using AC power source. Referring to FIG. 1, an ignition circuit is constituted by a power switch K1, a power indicator Z, a fuse R0, a capacitor C, a diode D, an ignition button switch K2 and step-up transformer B. When the power switch K1 is switched on, a 220V AC power is applied to the ignition circuit. The ignition button K2 has a contact K2-1 switched on and a contact K2-2 switched off. The 220V AC power charges the capacitor C through the diode D. When the ignition button K2 is pushed, the contact K-1 is switched off, the 220V AC power is cut off, and the contact K-2 being switched on. The capacitor C discharges through a primary winding L1 of the step-up transformer B, a secondary winding L2 of the step-up transformer B thereby inducing a high level voltage, thus a discharging terminal connected to the secondary winding L2 generates a spark. At this moment, if the gas valve is open, the gas cooker is ignited.
Although the above-mentioned gas cooker use AC power to be ignited while no batteries is needed, the power source, the igniter and the gas valve are controlled separately, a user needs to manually press the power switch K1 to connect the power source, and to manually press the ignition button to ignite, with the gas valve open beforehand. Therefore, the operation of ignition of the gas cooker is still very complicated and without linkage of work of the power source, the igniter and the gas valve. Moreover, because it needs the gas valve open beforehand, a potential safety hazard occurs.
Referring to FIG. 2, power source and igniter of conventional gas cookers are driven by mechanical switches controlling circuits including igniter circuit and power circuit to enable a load, therefore, achieving the purpose of ignition. However, this kind of circuits is low in efficiency and insecure. Thus more efficient and easy operation circuits for power source and igniter of gas cookers are in need.
Traditional gas cookers that have mechanical gas valve control are not safe enough, and some have thermoelectric couple for power supply which needs holding the gas valve at the beginning of ignition for the thermoelectric couple to generate current high enough. However, the above-mentioned gas cooker is not capable of keeping the gas valve open and manual operation is a must, which is inconvenient and not safe.
What is needed, therefore, is a gas cooker that can overcome the above-described deficiencies.